


you're as fake as the moans you make

by cobblestaubrey



Category: RuPaul's Drag Race RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Aquaria can't tell she's a heartbreaker, Brianna has trust issues, F/F, High School, everyone is just kinda gay
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2020-06-04
Packaged: 2020-07-26 00:03:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20034538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cobblestaubrey/pseuds/cobblestaubrey
Summary: (and you're as weak as the hearts you break)Brianna's been looking at Aquaria since school started. Aquaria's finally looking back. Aquaria's an accidental heartbreaker, Brianna's good at being heartbroken, it's a match made in Heaven, but it was probably lit in hell.





	1. and she's so fine, she thinks she's so damn fine

**Author's Note:**

> I heard the song in the title which basically has nothing to do with the actual fanfiction, and I wrote this. I hope I finish it but also this is barely beta-ed so sorry this might suck a little.

Brianna was just doing her chemistry homework, okay?

Okay, no she wasn’t. She wasn’t doing homework at all. I mean, yeah, she had the homework in front of her on the lunch table. She even had a pencil in her hand, and it was like eight inches from the paper.

She wouldn’t have noticed that anyway, though, because her eyes were on Aquaria Needles.

They_ always _were.

She’d argue that, no, they weren’t_ always_, because if they were that’d be creepy and she’d never get any of her homework done.

And her friends would say, yes Brianna, we know, it's a hyperbole.

Brianna hates hyperboles. Hyperbolas? Whatever. They’re too rooted in truth to find funny.

Anyway, Brianna was pretending to do her chemistry homework at one of the outdoor lunch tables, when something actually happened for once.   
  
By that I mean, she wasn’t just watching Aquaria take a sip from a water bottle or something mundane (“it’s not mundane, I mean, what if she choked? And only _I_ noticed!”), Aquaria actually did something noteworthy.

She looked back.

For probably anyone else at Andre Charles High, that wouldn’t be a big deal. It’d be like, a smidgen of a big deal, because it’s Aquaria, but nothing to write home about. Maybe something to send a lengthy text over, about those hunter eyes and smirk, but that’s all.

But she didn’t just look back at Brianna, no, she smirked. It lit something inside Brianna, Aquaria leaning against that brick pillar, ignoring whatever the blonde next to her was saying. The shadow of the overhang dulled the image of her, but Brianna could still see her eyes. Staring.

She’s always smirking in some shape or form, yeah, but, like, it was a big one. She knew something Brianna didn’t, or something Brianna subconsciously knew but was suppressing or something, Brianna could feel it.

“Hey, what’s the chemical symbol for lead again?”

That brought Brianna back from her thoughts. She finally looks away from Aquaria to deal with Monét, who’d actually been doing her chemistry homework, albeit during lunch, thirty minutes before it was due.

“Uh, it’s… Give me a minute.” Brianna closes her eyes and scrunches her eyebrows, muttering softly to herself. “Hot guys are from Mercury… Australia won gold... lead pencils break, pencils break-” she opens her eyes and turns back to Monét, “Pb.”

Monét stares back at her. “Yeah, alright, how’s that gonna work on timed tests?”

Brianna shrugs. 

The taller girl looks over at Brianna’s paper, squinting. “Are you gonna start or are you gonna keep giving Miss Needles over there the once over? Or twice over, I guess. Thrice-over-“

“That’s enough!” Brianna laughs, shaking her head. “I’m just distracted. She smirked at me.”

“She smirks at everyone. Except for guys, I think? They get the wrong idea way too easily for her.”

“Boys are dumb. But I’m not dumb, she smirked! Like a big one, like a ‘I’d accompany this with a wink but maybe that’s too far right now but I’d love to get to know you and then wink later’ type of smirk!” 

Monét picks her pencil back up, trying to end this conversation before Brianna comes up with something crazier. “I’m sure that’s not what the smirk meant. She probably saw you fall over last year and was laughing about it internally.”

Brianna sighs. “You promised you wouldn’t bring that up. And I don’t know, I think something’s gonna happen, something good!”

“Something _frisky_?” Monét asks, and Brianna shrieks.

After slapping her friend on the arm, Brianna goes back to pretending to do chemistry. But better this time, so Monét won’t know she’s still staring.

“You know I can see you’re still staring, right?”

“Shut up!”

* * *

About two minutes earlier…

“Brooke, y’know you can tell me anything, right?”

Brooke looks over to Aquaria, one eyebrow raised. “Sure, yeah.”

The shorter girl stares at her one second too long for Brooke’s liking. “So why haven’t you told me you’ve been fucking Vanessa?”

Brooke chokes on air, eyes darting around to see if anyone’s heads had turned. Half the school had been looking at them at that point anyway, because well, they’re _them_, but no one actually heard anything except for their own hearts racing.

Looking back, the blonde gives an icy glare, gritting her teeth. “What are you talking about?”

Aquaria points at the blue penned heart on Brooke’s history folder, feebly covered by pencil. She saw Vanessa draw it earlier, and Brooke had blushed while trying (and failing) to cover up the ink. 

Blushing again, the blonde puts her thumb over the drawing. “She was a loud mouth, and she did ballet, what more can I say?” Aquaria is laughing at her own joke, like a loser, but Brooke couldn’t grow more red. “Who’da guessed? Oh, yeah, I did, from whatever that eye fucking was in history today.”

“She’s not a loud mouth.” Brooke mutters, eyes to the ground, and that’s all Aquaria needed to confirm her suspicions. 

“Look Brooke, I get it - she’s hot, you’re a little repressed. Nothin’ to be ashamed about. We’ve all got our vices…” she trails off, looking over to the blonde barbie about three inches shorter than her but somehow so much more of a woman. Aquaria then shivers, because damn that was a pervy, teenage-boy-like thought, but smirks nonetheless. Brianna was staring and she was going to revel in the moment.

Brooke follows her gaze, eyebrows scrunching up until she sees who it is. “Oh no, come on Aquaria. She’s really nice.”

She nods. “She is. And I want her.”

“Why?” The unspoken _why now _still gets across.

Aquaria shrugs. “We’re in four classes together this year and those skirts are getting shorter. It’s impossible not to go for it.”

Brooke rolls her eyes, she knows better than to say anything that could go against her. “I was expecting Blair St. Clair, honestly. She seems much more your type.”

Aquaria raises her eyebrow, “What’s my type?”

“Innocent, fragile, a little too into whoever they’re into this week. Will probably spend the next year heartbroken.” Brooke lists them off on her finger with ease.

“That’s sounds like it’d be your type.”

Brooke snorts. “I like a little challenge, at least. Brianna stares at you. You could probably step on her throat and she’d say thanks.”

Aquaria smirks. “So Vanjie’s a challenge?”

The blonde smiles the tiniest smile, “She’s the whole obstacle course.”

“What do you get for winning?” Aquaria nudges Brooke with her elbow.

Brooke huffs and blows a piece of hair of her face. “I don’t think I can win.”

Quirking an eyebrow, Aquaria asks “What’s the point then?”.

“I think…” Brooke ponders for a moment. “I think I just want to run the course for as long as she’ll let me.”

The shorter girl scoffs, crossing her arms. “We’re not talking in metaphors, loser. Do you just want a quick fuck-” Brooke winces at that, “or are you gonna go walking down the hall hand in hand?”

“I don’t know, I don’t really- I’ve never had a girlfriend or a kindergarten boyfriend or anything. I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel about all of this.”

Aquaria rolls her eyes. “Dude, just go over to her house, and if you wanna stay after the sex then you know.”

“I already did that.”

“You already- _what? _You know what, whatever, you’re dating.” Aquaria says it so seriously and with such conviction, Brooke believes it for a second until she realizes what just happened.

“What? No, we’re, we haven’t even talked about it.”

“Yeah, but we did, so.” 

Brooke shakes her head, looking around to see if she can find the Latina. She’s about thirty feet over, near the outdoor lockers, glancing over Akeria’s shoulder every now and then to glide her eyes over Brooke’s body. The blonde doesn’t want to encourage it in public, but she feels happy and that’s enough for now.

“I don’t even know if that’s what she wants, regardless of if it’s what I want.”

Aquaria snorts, shaking her head. “Of course she wants it. You’re Brooke Lynn Hytes, and you’re like 5’10.” She states that as if those are the only two attributes a woman wants in another woman, which is (somewhat) ridiculous, but there’s a finalty to it that Brooke can’t be bothered to argue against.

“Whatever. I’m going to go see her before study hall ends.”

“Janitor’s closet on the second floor is never used.” Aquaria offers as Brooke walks away, sticking her tongue out at the dark haired girl.

Aquaria looks back at Brianna, but she’s actually working on her homework for once and by the look on her face, she’s not gonna get through it if Aquaria distracts her. 

She takes a step forward and falters. She _falters_. Even from twenty feet away she can make up just enough details of Brianna’s face to make her heart do some stupid shit like give her a pang, some weird type of anxiety she’s never felt. Something washes over her, like forty sugar cubes just dissolved in her heart valves.

She shakes her head. She wants to remember one night with Brianna and forget about her. She wants to shove her against a wall or maybe be shoved against the wall, tangle her hands in that perfect blonde hair and take her out to the movies and not pay attention but pay for everything and-

The plan is to get what she wants and leave. Just that, and nothing else. 

Brianna looks up and sees her and, shit, she forgot to stop staring while she had that internal battle. What does she do? Brianna’s looking back at her, is her mouth moving? What’s she saying? She looks good, right? Is this jacket too much? Should she take it off? Would that be hot?

* * *

“Monét. _Monét_. _Psst_.” 

“Girl, _what_? I’m like, two problems away from finishing-”

Brianna jabs her shoulder with an elbow, refusing to take her eyes away from Aquaria. “She’s looking at me! Well no, now she’s not, she’s fumbling with her jacket, is she trying to take it off? I think it’s stuck? Whatever, she’s staring!”

Monét finally looks up from the paper to see Aquaria, who looks _almost_ normal, but her eyes are shifting around so subtly and her jacket is half-off, half-on, and she’d look stupid if it wasn’t Aquaria. In fact, it looks almost fashionable and she’s a little too surprised that Aquaria can basically pull off anything, before she realizes that, _yeah_, Aquaria is _looking _at _Brianna_, and was that- was that a _full smile_? I mean, it wasn’t a _full _one because that would be crazy but _both _corners of her mouth are upwards.

“Is she walking towards me? Oh my god, is she walking towards me or am I falling forward?”

Monét cannot handle all the hormones and the tension slowly unraveling as Aquaria comes closer, so she quickly grabs her stuff, shoves it into the backpack, gives Brianna a quick pat on the back, and gets the _hell _out of there.

Brianna finally looks away in time to see Monét almost trip as she fast-walks over to Nina West, almost knocking the taller girl over. 

When the blonde turns back around, Aquaria is less than five feet away, and Brianna has no idea what words are going to come out of her mouth and doesn’t really want to know, because they’re-

“Me?”

Bound to be stupid.

Really? _Really_?

Aquaria almost looks taken aback, moving slightly away, but her eyelids are still lowered as always and her hands are buried loosely in her pockets.

Brianna’s eyes however, _do _go wide, and she rushes to correct herself. “I mean, uh, you! You, Aquaria, hi! Hi, I’m, I’m gonna stop talking now. Forever, I think.”

Aquaria stifles a laugh, and Brianna wants to remove the hand from the taller girl’s mouth and watch a full, hearty laugh ripple through her. She feels a little intense right now, something in the air has shifted, Aquaria walked up to _her_.

Speaking of, the girl has now moved to sit down across from her, reaching her hand across to Brianna’s. She takes the pencil from the shorter girl’s hand, placing it down. “Yeah, me.” Aquaria finally responds, looking directly at Brianna, but the blonde has never been great at eye contact with pretty girls. She knows Aquaria wants her full attention, though, so she tries. Sort of.

“What’s up?” Brianna rests her head on her hands, but misses the table when putting her elbow down, and barely recovers from it. It’s okay, she’s cool, this is cool, she can be cool.

No she can’t.

Aquaria keeps smirking, but it’s more genuine than any other one she’s seen. 

The taller girl wants to go in for the kill, invite her over to her empty house, show the girl her bedroom, shove her against her closet door, make some cute shit like cookies because Brianna probably can bake, and kiss her goodnight and good morning and -

No, no. Just like, the first three. Or four. But nothing else. 

She knows that she can’t spring that on Brianna just yet, so she just asks about her favorite subject. Partly for what she wants to do and partly because she’s curious about what makes Brianna light up. 

“English, definitely. Not really the reading part, but writing has always been a big part of my life. Stories, poetry, yeah, it’s sort of silly but it’s helped me a lot…” Brianna trails off, unsure how much of that Aquaria even wanted to hear.

“It’s not silly.” The taller girl’s voice is warm, it’s never been loud but it’s even softer than normal, like she’s trying to tell Brianna more than what she’s said. 

She is. She wants to say _I’d love to read some_, or _Whoever told you that was silly is wrong_, but she can’t, she doesn’t want to say something and have Brianna get attached, have Brianna see some side of her that’ll ‘prove’ Aquaria can be whoever she needs. 

Aquaria isn’t the bad girl with the soft heart who’ll change because Brianna’s got naive eyes and a nice ass. She’s going to get what she wants and leave, and no one’s gonna get hurt. Like always.

Except Brianna’s looking at her like she hung the moon and the stars and she thinks she’s done for, just for a second, until she snaps out of whatever Brianna-filled haze she’s been in and gets back to being herself.

“Well, I’m kind of crap at English myself, and I’ve got an essay due soon.”

Brianna frowns, and Aquaria wonders what she said wrong already. “I’m not… I won’t do your essay for you Aquaria, if that’s why you’re over here-”

“What? No.” The accusation aches in her chest for a moment, and she rushes to defend herself. “I was- I wanted help, like, tutoring or something.” Her voice grows soft. “Why would I ask you to do that?”

The blonde’s eyes shift around, her cheeks are red and she looks almost embarrassed. “Well, that’s sorta what Antoinette made me do last year…”

“Who’s Antoinette- Oh, the _Vixen _?”

Brianna nods, still looking away.

“The Vixen is a nightmare, I’m not- I’m not _her_, you know.”

“I know you aren’t, but she was sweet, she just...”

“She took advantage of you.” Aquaria says sternly, and she doesn’t know where this is coming from but she can’t believe Brianna fell for whatever facade Vixen had been portraying, but worst of all, she can’t believe Brianna would compare her to that _bitch_. Like, come on, Aquaria can be a dick sometimes but she has morals, at least! “She did to you what she does to anyone, she took your trust and used it to get herself ahead. I’m not her.” She has to repeat that last sentiment. 

Brianna finally looks at her, and she looks smaller. Dejected. “I know. I’m sorry…” And it sounds like the blonde has dealt with this exact situation before, assuming things because she’s been treated like shit, and having to apologize when people don’t like that very much. Any of the anger Aquaria has left subsides, and all she’s left with is the desire to make sure Brianna doesn’t ever sound like that again.

But she still can’t let the girl get attached. Or let herself, for that matter. She isn’t about to respond with some speech about how Brianna is broken and will learn to trust again some day, so she tries to ease the conversation back to where it began.

“Don’t be. Stuff like that makes it hard to trust people. I get it. So, do you think you can help me in English?” 

Brianna smiles just slightly, which is a win for Aquaria, and nods. “Yeah, I can. Who do you have?”

Aquaria rolls her eyes playfully. “Miss Visage. She’s got a vendetta, I swear.”

Brianna giggles, and Aquaria feels her smile grow bigger, and she sorta wants it to stop but sorta wants to hear that sound again. “She’s nice!”

The tall girl gasps. “No!”

The blonde is still laughing. Aquaria mentally high fives herself. “Yeah, I had her! She actually cared about making sure we learned and not just passed. She’s my favorite English teacher of all time.”

Aquaria shakes her head, smiling at the girl. That charming smile she reserves for the pretty girls who capture her attention for more than a few minutes at a time. This one, though, feels easier, like it’s something she should be hiding behind her hands ,but doesn’t because she wants Brianna to like her smile.

Or something.

They both laugh until it’s silent, and Brianna has this small smile like Aquaria is something else, someone she wasn’t expecting, something better. Aquaria was afraid of that, and even though part of her wants to stay with her, the other part of her knows she needs to go.

Aquaria asks for her number, so they can plan a time to work on her essay, because Aquaria meant it when she said she was shit at English. Brianna hands over her phone easily, and she can see the last song Brianna had been listening to - _Manic Mondays_ \- which is exactly what Aquaria would expect from someone like Brianna but it’s 2019 and she doesn’t think the blonde knows half the people on Spotify. She laughs quietly to herself and types in her name in the girl’s contacts, putting a wink emoji next to it. 

She always feels bold, but she also feels different about Brianna. She knows the blonde isn’t going to snapchat her nudes at twelve a.m., or ask to see her room just so they can make out, or even let her under the bra before marriage, probably. 

She thinks about if Brianna’s expecting some first date bullshit or if she _should _be taking her to some fancy restaurant in the city one town over, wearing some button up shirt just to pretend she’s something better than she is for the night. It’s not a comfortable thought, it’s not something she’s used to, but it’s not something she hates either and she doesn’t know what that means yet.

When she gives the girl’s phone back, Brianna looks at the name and blushes just the slightest bit. Aquaria wants to say something, wants to be forward and ask her if she’s available on Friday, or Saturday, or any day of the week, but she hesitates for too long and Brianna speaks first, looking around Aquaria into the school’s glass windows.

“I think everyone’s leaving in there, lunch is over. We should get going.”

Aquaria nods. She feels accomplished, but she still wants more time with the girl. She wants to ask her something else, but she doesn’t want to look disappointed, so she just shoves her hands back into her pockets and stands up. 

“You’ll text me?” Brianna asks quietly, before Aquaria is fully turned around. The taller girl stops, and takes one more look at Brianna. 

“Yeah, I will. See you later.” Aquaria says, and Brianna smiles, a real one, and Aquaria realizes she hasn’t seen that from the girl, yet. She thinks the way her two front teeth jut out is adorable but can’t focus on it too long or Brianna will notice, so Aquaria turns back around before the other girl can respond.

She still manages to hear a soft “bye” behind her, and her heart is beating like, twenty beats too fast and it’s sort of ridiculous. 

She thinks Brianna is a little too good for this world, but also thinks Brianna isn’t going to be too good for her. Or, she is, and Aquaria will fuck that up before it even starts.

Whatever. She’s got a math test to fail.


	2. cute face, slim waist, she's got 'em in a craze

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brianna and friends have a chat on the etiquette of texting your crush and Aquaria pretends she doesn't have feelings, 'cause like, she doesn't. She swears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, another chapter, surprisingly. I hope it lives up to the first, but I don't think it does lol this isn't beta-ed so sorry if I've got like fifty grammar issues.

“Brianna, for the last time, you _ cannot _respond to her texts half a second after they're sent!” 

“Of course I’m not doing that! It takes me more than half a second to write a response!”

“Yeah, that’s another issue, stop sending paragraphs and stop triple texting her!”

Monét and Blair had been watching incredulously as the three sat in Monét’s room, Brianna breaking almost every rule of texting. Monét feels like a soccer mom witnessing her kid try to catch the ball in midfield. 

“I don’t get it, why am I supposed to wait to respond?” Brianna asks, trying not to obsess over the sounds her phone is making. 

Monét groans, rolling her eyes almost painfully, looking over to Blair. Blair shrugs, and Monét decides she’s going from soccer mom to elementary school teacher. She gets up from her desk and grabs Brianna’s hands, making her voice softer. She knows she’s going to sound a little more condescending than she’d like but also knows it’s the only way to get across to the shorter girl.

“Listen, sweetie. If you respond immediately, Aquaria isn’t going to think you’re just on your phone and seeing her response at the top of the screen. She’s going to imagine your halfway across the room, throwing yourself towards your phone every time it so much as vibrates. That makes you sound desperate.”

Brianna’s nodding along to everything Monét says, a look of determination falling over her face, and Blair can’t help but laugh. “Okay, yeah, that makes sense! I don’t want her to think I’m desperate!”

“Well, you are,” Monét reminds her, but Brianna is too preoccupied with shoving her phone far into the pillow to her left. “Don’t forget that when you leave.”

“I won’t. But we’ve got studying to do and I’ve got a girl to ignore.” 

Blair laughs louder at that, shaking her head. “You don’t have to ignore her, just respond after like, ten minutes. If you don’t shower her with attention, she’ll want it more.”

“How do you guys know so much about this?” Brianna asks in awe. The blonde girl had been through only a few relationships, but never with someone she had wanted to like her so bad. She had never been so cautious with how she acted. She didn’t know if she wanted to be, but if that’s what it took, she’d do it. 

Monét shrugs, trying to finish the history homework in front of her. She cares a bit more about this conversation than whatever FDR was doing, though. “You just kinda pick it up. I’ve gone after my share fair of man candy, and it gets easier. You end up just not responding on your own.”

“Yeah,” Blair chimes in, “honestly, at one point you stop obsessing. One time I saw a text and forgot to respond for a whole day.”

“Oh girl, been there,” Monét says, and Brianna cocks an eyebrow. 

“But if you don’t want to respond, do you even like them?”

“People like breaks, Brie. If your mom texted you every day you’d hate it, and you still love her.”

Brianna furrows her brows at the paragraph she’d been trying to read for the last ten minutes. “Oh, yeah. I would hate that. Am I my mom in this situation?”

“Uh,” Monét snorts. “I think Aquaria is more your mommy.” She just barely dodges Brianna’s hand, and high fives Blair’s, the shortest girl screeching (because that sound could not be considered a laugh).

“Alright, alright,” Brianna wheezes, “she only said that she just had a snack, so I guess I don’t have to respond?”

Monét nods and Blair picks her pencil back up. “Yeah, that seems like an end. Just wait for her to text you.” Monet decides.

“Okay, that makes sense.”

They’re quiet for a moment, each going back to their own textbooks, until Blair speaks up. “Are we really going to harp on Brianna for this and _ not _ talk about the other elephant in the room?”

Monét throws a glare in the girl’s direction before Brianna speaks up. “Wait, wait, is something going on? With you? And someone?”

The girl in question rolls her eyes, turning another page in her book. “We talked a few times after class or whatever, it’s nothing, we’re - it’s nothing.”

Brianna snorts, because come _ on. _ She thought she was obvious, but the way Monét is speaking about whoever this is can’t even compare. It’s multitudes higher.

Okay, Brianna _ thinks _ it is, but she’s oblivious to her own blatancy. 

Blair nudges Monét, smiling softly at her. “Come on, we won’t judge, you know us. Well, we might, if he’s really ugly, but I’ve been seeing the heart eyes. I just can’t figure out who they’re directed towards.”

Monét rolls her eyes at that. “How can you not see? I’m not lazy eyed, I don’t have one looking at someone fine and the other on the floor.”

“Have _ you _ ever tried to see where someone else is looking? When there’s forty people in the lunch line? No!”

Oh my god can we just know already!” Brianna exaggerates almost every syllable, playing up the dramatic role, as a good friend should. She barely ever gets to see Monét moony-eyed, and she isn’t going to let this go to waste just because her two friends love to bicker.

The tallest (not a huge feat in this friend group) gives up and gives in, throwing her hands up in defeat. “I’m a little, stupidly into Nina! Are you happy!” She comically yells the last part, and her friends squeal. 

“Nina? Nina _ West_? Lead of _ Hello, Dolly! _as a junior, Nina West?”

“Yeah, that’s the one.” Monét smiles faintly at the description, mostly against her own will, because _ yeah, she got the lead as a junior_, and how could she _ not _be proud. 

“Do you think she feels the same?” Blair probes, and Brianna nods along, wanting to hear everything. 

Monét decides that if she’s gonna tell anyone anything, then she should tell these two everything. “Well, there was this one thing,”

“Oh my god!” Brianna interrupts, unable to contain her wild imagination. “Did you kiss? Did you trip and fall into her arms and she said ‘I guess you fell for me?’ and it was like - no, wait! Did- was, was she- how,”

Monét _ cackles_, shaking her head and trying to will away the burn in her cheeks. “No, no!” She yells playfully, her voice higher than usual. “She just, we were talking, and she laughed and I laughed and she, like, leaned her head on my shoulder,” she lays her head on Blair’s shoulder as she describes it, “like this, and then she looked at me as if I had hung the moon or something, and I just… I turned away and laughed, like an idiot.”

“Ugh!” Brianna throws up her hands. “So close! Come on!” 

Monét can’t help but laugh, she’s embarrassed, but also can’t believe her own idiocy. “I don’t know, maybe we weren’t ready for that yet. Next time, though, you bet your skinny asses I’m making a move.”

Blair gives a toothy grin, and then actually processes what her friend said. “Wait, skinny? My butt is _ not_-

“Don’t even get me started, y’all ain’t _ seen _ thick before this,” she gestures to her behind, and Brianna cackles while Blair gives a faux glare that turns into another laugh.

The shortest girl finishes laughing and realizes she’s still got twelve pages left in this chapter of her textbook. She decides it’s time to forget about the girl drama and do her work… for once. “Alright, well, you guys really gotta help me figure out what the hell this Roosevelt did, because I thought he was Teddy’s son and apparently he’s not.”

Monét shakes her head. “Oh god, you’ve got a lot to learn.” 

* * *

“The hell?” Aquaria’s mutters to herself, loud enough for Brooke to hear two feet away. 

Aquaria had been staring at her phone for half a second and already was mad at it, which was a record in Brooke’s book. “What?”

Aquaria scowled, “Brianna just like, stopped responding.”

“Haven’t you been texting for like half an hour? Maybe she had other things to do.”

Aquaria shrugs, alternating between apps before coming back to her last text. “She has been texting back immediately before. She would have said something. Did I say something wrong?” Aquaria’s eyes get wider. She shoves the phone into Brooke’s hands, awaiting her friend’s response. 

Brooke takes the phone, eyes the text, and rolls her eyes. “Are you serious?” 

“What?”

Brooke hands the phone back, her voice getting louder. “Aquaria, all you said was ‘just had a snack’, what could she have been offended by?”

Aquaria rolls her eyes, giving her friend a look to say it’s obvious, because _ of course _it is. “What if by a ‘snack’, she thinks I mean like, a hot girl? And now she thinks I’m hooking up with some random girl and not thinking about her!”

The taller girl stands up, grabs her textbook off the desk two feet from the bed, and swats Aquaria with it. 

“Ow! What the hell?” Aquaria shouts, covering her head with her hands. 

“Stop. Obsessing. You know she likes you, you don’t even like her _ that _ much, and if you keep acting like this, _ you’re _going to be the puppy dog following her around like you’re on a leash. That’s her job, isn’t it?”

Aquaria scowls and looks down at her phone. “I don’t know. She was being all funny and needy and I kinda liked _ that_, even if it’s sorta sad.” 

“What, that she’s been texting you non stop?”

“No, that I like it… Usually it’s like, fucking annoying. But, when she texts me, I kinda wanna see what she’s thinking? Like, she texted me about how her friend Blair tripped up the stairs and knocked down almost an entire row of photos in Monét’s house and it was kinda _ cute _-”

Brooke laughs and Aquaria is drawn out of her thoughts abruptly. “What? _ What_?” 

The blonde only shakes her head and starts drawing on her paper. Aquaria, facing the wrong way, attempts to twist her body but can barely make out the squiggles and maps Brooke is doodling. 

After a minute, Brooke lifts her pen fully off the paper and Aquaria scoffs. “Finally, now what the hell is that mess?”

Brooke takes her pen like a hand pointer and starts gesturing to each part of her drawing. “Okay, this is you,” she touches a medium sized circle, drawn with sharp lines and scratches. “all black and mysterious and evil-looking.” 

Aquaria glares at the drawing. “Evil-looking? Really?” 

“Shut up! I’m right! Anyway, that’s you. See these dotted lines that connect to all these broken hearts? That’s the girls you’ve picked up and dropped. There’s this wall where the dotted line is supposed to meet you, and that wall surrounds almost the entirety of your harsh, circular body. Except here.” Brooke points to a small opening in the wall. “That’s the opening these girls are looking for. Except they’re kind of stupid and kind of boring and, therefore, they can’t find it.”

Aquaria actually laughs at that, because they _ are _ boring. And they basically just want the same thing, just to sleep with Aquaria to say they’ve done it. It’s not _ her _fault they get attached when they find out she’s more than a nice lay.

Brooke smirks. “None of them can find it, except that heart.” the blonde says, pointing to a big heart, surrounded by sparkles and some poorly done drawing of a unicorn (it’s like, fifty percent horn). 

“Oh yeah, real subtle.” Aquaria quips, but Brooke doesn’t pause.

“That heart is Brianna. She’s got a straight, non-dotted line. She’s found the hole in your armor and she’s headed right for you, and right for -” Brooke takes her pen and draws the smallest heart possible - “your damaged, brittle heart.”

Aquaria grits her teeth. “My heart is _ not _ damaged.”

“Why else would you be so against your feelings for Brianna?”

“Because there aren’t any?” Aquaria shouts back, for no reason because Brooke is speaking at a normal volume. “It’s just fun to chase, fun to make a move or whatever! I’m seventeen and I just want to have some fun and screw around before the real world shows up and kicks my ass.”

The blonde nods, because, yeah, she gets it. She gets the fear of what’s to come when there’s no more protection, when you become in charge of your own life and there are no parents or teachers to stand up for you.

“You don’t want anything past a hookup?” Brooke asks innocently enough, but it still catches Aquaria off guard. 

She thinks about things she doesn’t usually, holding hands with Brianna in the hall and accepting whatever flower that reminded Brianna of herself that day. She thinks about telling Brianna she loves her some day and celebrating a four month anniversary for no reason other than the fact it wouldn’t matter to anyone else. She thinks about a lot of things about Brianna, but she doesn’t realize the feeling in her chest isn’t binding anxiety. She might at some point, though, but not now. 

“Yeah. I just wanna sleep with her. You know, they say good girls are bad girls that haven’t been caught.”

“No one says that. That’s a Five Seconds of Summer song.” Brooke retorts, then wrinkles her nose. “Also, gross. I don’t care how she might be in bed, good girl or bad girl.”

Aquaria shrugs. “Just sayin’.”

There’s a slight pause, and Brooke’s lopsided smile returns with a wicked vengeance.

“Make your move then.” 

“What?”

“What is there to lose? If she doesn’t want you now, she won’t want you after your twelve step plan to get into her pants, either. This shouldn’t take you a month when you can finish it off in a day.”

Aquaria bites her lip and looks towards her phone.

“I mean, if you don’t have feelings for her, you should want to get this over with anyway, right?”

Aquaria’s eyebrows lower. She knows what Brooke is doing, but she isn’t going to play this game. Instead, she smirks back and swipes her phone back off the bed. She stares intently at the screen, and at the last message she sent.

Brooke, like an idiot, didn’t expect Aquaria would follow through with this. She thought there’d be some arguing, Aquaria would yell out some confession about having feelings for Brianna since second grade or something crazy, and they’d hug it out.

But Brooke is, albeit being book-smart, an idiot. Pushing Aquaria’s buttons would never cause her to open up, and after five years of being friends, Brooke should know that.

But she doesn’t. So Aquaria types out something risky, sends it, shows it to Brooke, and gets back to studying like her heart isn’t beating faster.

Brooke only shakes her head and pretends like math is the only thing she’s thinking of right now. Not the fact that her friend is purposefully trying to mess up her only chance at a real relationship, or the fact that a hot Latina has wormed her way into every thought in her head in some way or another. 

Aquaria can make her own mistakes, because she's got her own to make anyway.

* * *

Brianna’s phone dings again a few minutes after she puts it under the pillow. Her friends look at her, and she decides it wouldn’t hurt to check. It probably isn’t Aquaria anyway, and-

It’s Aquaria.

“It’s Aquaria.” Brianna blurts out, and Monét quirks an eyebrow.

“She double texted you?”

“Uh, yeah. I guess. Why?” the blonde asks, because she still doesn’t really get this whole thing.

Monét sighs. “Let me rephrase. _ She _ double texted _ you_?” 

That manages to confuse Brianna even more, so Blair just bites the bullet and asks, “Well, what does it say?”

Brianna had forgotten to read it up until that moment, but she wishes she hadn’t ever because the heart attack it caused was not worth the trouble. Well, it was, really, definitely, 100% worth the trouble, but in that moment it felt like she was going to die, so, you know.

“Um, it- wow, okay.” Brianna blinks, rubs her eyes, tries to convince herself she’s become acutely dyslexic, because _ wow_.

“You good?” Monét asks, because, yeah, she’s seen Brianna speechless, or basically paralyzed, but not from something like this.

“‘Come over Saturday?” Brianna reads, her voice shaking. 

Blair laughs. “That’s all? That’s not too bad.”

The blonde looks up, making direct eye contact with Blair, and recites the rest. “‘I’d say we should watch a movie, but I don’t think we’d be paying attention.’” 

Blair chokes on nothing, and her other friend laughs. “Holy _ shit_,” Monét says between laughs, “That was probably the only thing she could say that wouldn’t leave you asking what she means.”

Brianna blushes, looking away. “Right,” she laughs nervously, “but, uh, for safe measure, it _ does _ mean what I think it means, right?”

“Yeah, if what you think it means is that she wants in your pants, _ soon_.” 

The short girl’s face gets even redder, if that’s possible, and she looks back down at her phone. She had wanted Aquaria for a while, because of course did. She wanted the girl with the studded leather collar and the black skinny jeans and the smirk forever tattooed on her face. The girl who’s almost six inches taller than her, towered over her every time they crossed paths in the hallway, the girl who didn’t want anything serious, when that’s all Brianna’s ever wanted. Someone to love, someone to cuddle, to hold her hand. 

It sucks, sometimes. She’s seen the girls Aquaria has brought home once and never again, from parties, from classes, from some random eye contact in the hall that Aquaria had decided to act on.

She’s seen it all, even when she didn’t want to. She doesn’t want to be another girl, another notch in her bedpost. 

It’s Aquaria, though. Even though she should be saying no, she isn’t going to. It’s better to have loved and lost than never loved at all, right? Even if that love is nothing more than a one night stand, and you’ve lost them because you never really had them in the first place.

That sounds worse now that she thinks about it, but she’s already typing out a response before she can convince herself she’d be better off never knowing what it’s like to be under the other girl, to kiss her, to feel the heat of her body on her own.

She sends the text and throws her phone. She’s disappointed in herself but the devil on her shoulder (who’d probably be Blair, because the damn girl can’t say no) is telling her to take this one chance, and the angel (Monét, who would kick her ass for this if she could) is currently shaking her head at the blonde.

_I’d love to :) _

The words she has etched into her mind. She doesn’t know how this is going to end, or how it’ll even go, but at least she knows where it began. With a stupid text she shouldn’t have sent. 

She did send it, though.

Idiot.


	3. she's fresh to death, she'll be the death of me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s time for Aquaria and Brianna’s sorta-almost-could-be-date because Aquaria can’t keep it in her pants or put her heart on her sleeve.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, it's been a while! I honestly didn't think I'd update this, but I had a sudden hit of inspiration after college ended for the summer. 
> 
> I realized that in the first chapter, I switched tenses, and that's embarrassing tbh but I'm too lazy to fix it, now. Here's your yearly dose of Craquaria, a dead ship. 
> 
> Also, a few things: This isn't beta'd, for one. Two, I don't write smut or anything bc it makes me uncomfortable and also they're high schoolers. Three, I was gonna write more, but then a spider showed up in my room and I got too scared to finish this properly.

Brianna smooths down her skirt. She smooths it again, and again, until she lets out a huge sigh and clenches her fist around the fabric.

Monét and Blair had warned her that  _ maybe _ this was a little too fast,  _ maybe _ she was going to get her heart broken,  _ maybe _ she barely knows more about Aquaria than her name and how bad she is in school, but  _ dammit _ did Brianna want to go.

She has no idea what to expect and, honestly, she doesn’t even know how far she’ll let Aquaria go. 

Monét says she should set boundaries, but Blair thinks she’ll know in the moment.

Monét thinks Blair is kind of an idiot sometimes.

Brianna can’t get the thought of Aquaria’s eyes or mouth or hands out of her mind. She looks over to her bed and sees the phone, blinking with the last text message she was sent.

_ see u tonight then ;)  _

It usually irritates her when people use text speak, and she typically can’t stand that stupid winking emoticon, but something about it made her heart pound. 

“Honey, it’s almost six, do you need me to drive you?” her mom called from the stairs.

Brianna wrings her hands together, looking over to the door. “I can drive myself, thanks!” she calls back, grabbing her purse and car keys. 

When she walks down the stairs, she’s only hoping her mom doesn’t ask her anything embarrassing. 

She’s not so lucky.

“So, who’s the friend? How long have you known them?”

Brianna has never been mean to her mother. She hasn’t snapped at her, she hasn’t screamed, and she hasn’t felt like she should be on Dr. Phil at any time during her life.

She can’t help what comes out of her mouth, though, and now she sort of gets the girls on Dr. Phil.

“I don’t know! She’s just a girl, okay? Stop!” 

Her mom takes a literal step back, and hurt clearly floods onto her face. 

She gets her emotional side from her mother, and now she definitely doesn’t understand the girls on Dr. Phil.

“Oh my God, mom,” Brianna starts, immediately rushing over to hug her. “I’m sorry, she’s just- I just don’t know and I didn’t want questions!”

Her mom hugs her back (thank God), and just says, “It’s okay. She’s got you pretty worked up, huh?”

Brianna loves her mom and is honest, so she nods. “She’s really cool, but she’s also  _ popular _ . I mean, that doesn’t really matter like it did when you went to high school, but I don’t know why she wants to hang out with me.”

Her mom gives her a sympathetic smile. “Not everyone cares about that sort of thing, Bree. Just go have fun.” She gives Brianna’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze. 

Brianna takes that as, “have fun, please don’t get your heart broken, or I’ll get my heart broken and I’ll kill the girl,” and she hopes she keeps that in mind.

She says sorry one more time, and then makes her way to her car. She had been going stir crazy in her room, and now there’s nothing left to do but drive off and face her fears.

Had she ever been on a date before? Uh, yeah, she’s not a total loser. Sort of. Had she ever been confused as to whether something had actually  _ been _ a date? Yes, because she’s confused about most things. However, had she ever gotten her hopes up, only to have them completely shattered, leaving her heartbroken? Um… Also, yes. This time, though, she hoped things would be different. She wanted Aquaria to like her, but she also wanted to keep her own walls up. She knows, deep down, that Aquaria isn’t Antoinette, but she can’t help but worry. 

She knows Aquaria doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to girls, but she also knows that Aquaria double texts her and smiles at her in the hall.

Getting into the car, she receives another text. It drove her crazy when Aquaria would double text her. Sure, she really only learned what that meant, like, a week ago, but It made her feel wanted, especially when she read texts like -

_ im waiting impatiently ;)  _

She barely knows what Aquaria means but still feels  _ something  _ go straight down. She gulps, turning the key into the engine.

Brianna has no idea what is real and what’s a joke sometimes, so she picks up her phone to respond. She doesn’t want to keep Aquaria waiting too long.

_ I’m on my way!  _

She gets a text back almost immediately.

_ cant wait to see what ur wearing _

Her cheeks immediately go red as she takes in a short, quick breath. She hadn’t expected something so forward, but she can’t say she doesn’t appreciate the blatancy. 

There weren’t many girls or boys before and was afraid of reading signals wrong. With Aquaria, it’s almost impossible to read them wrong.

She sighs happily when an upbeat pop song comes on the radio, pulling her out of her own head. 

* * *

“Aquaria, for the last time, shut up, I don’t really care, it’ll be  _ fine _ .”

The brunette shook her head. “It won’t, Brooke, it’s gonna suck. I’m gonna try and get under her shirt and she’s gonna make me pray or something!”

Brooke sighed, her voice crackling through the phone line. “Maybe you can just not go under her shirt, then.” 

“I’m not following.”

“Yep. Just stop being so sexual or whatever, you’re gonna come off as desperate.”

Aquaria gasps, furrowing her brows. “I’m coming off as  _ flirty _ , for your information.”

She can hear Brooke laugh, and that makes Aquaria fume. Aquaria doesn’t really understand how she’s turned from the most desirable girl in school to some desperate mess in the eyes of her best friend, but she’s not having it. 

“Listen, you  _ know _ I’m rooting for you, but Brianna is really nice and she’s also really innocent. I don’t want you to corrupt her on the first date.”

Brooke’s only response is a scoff.

“I know, I know,  _ ‘there won’t be another date, anyway, Brooke’, _ but there  _ will _ , and you  _ know _ it.”

“Whatever.” Aquaria blows her hair out of her eyes, huffing into the phone, and it reminds her way too much of a 2008 scene girl. “I have to go, she’s gonna be here soon.”

“Yeah, go reorganize your room one more time. I bet she’ll notice.”

“Fuck off.” Aquaria says, hanging up halfway through Brooke’s chuckle. 

When Aquaria finally sets her phone down, she looks around her room. All of her clothes are in her walk-in closet, all of her textbooks are stacked on her desk, and her bed is made. Her television is perfectly titled on the wall, a few movies stacked on the bureau next to it. 

Aquaria sighed, bending down to stretch out her skinny jeans, which had ridden up her legs.

There is little she can do to prepare herself for the way her heart speeds up when Brianna rings the doorbell. She only hopes that Brianna’s heart is beating fast, too. 

When she opens the door, all she can see is Brianna’s shy smile. “Hi.” the shorter girl says, looking up through her eyelashes. 

Aquaria doesn’t want to  _ say _ that Brianna looks like Debby Ryan from Radio Rebel, but Brianna definitely doesn’t have the right role models when it comes to flirting. However, Aquaria oddly doesn’t mind it? She’s rarely in the presence of a girl who is irrevocably herself, and it’s refreshing.

“Hey.” Aquaria smirks, and she’s glad that she’s been perfecting that lopsided smile for so many years, because she can see Brianna melt. She takes her time raking her eyes down and back up Brianna's body, and she can't help but inwardly smile at the cute skirt the blonde is wearing. 

_She's adorable_, she thinks to herself, before shaking that thought right out of her head. 

There’s a pause, and Aquaria feels awkward underneath Brianna’s stare, but Brianna doesn’t appear to notice. 

Aquaria blinks, and then straightens up quickly. “Oh, um, you can come in.” She hates that she’s completely out of her zone, here. 

Brianna bounces in, and Aquaria asks if she wants anything before they go upstairs.

“Yeah, do you have any juice?” 

Aquaria gets Brianna apple juice, and they make their way upstairs. Brianna is super careful not to drop any juice on the stairs, but she still does. She makes a tiny ‘oops’ noise, and Aquaria thinks it’s adorable, but just can’t say so out loud. 

“That’s alright, I’ll get a napkin,” is what she says instead, and makes her way back down the steps. 

When they’re finally in Aquaria’s room, it’s clear Brianna has no idea what she’s doing. She’s fidgeting with her hands, standing next to Aquaria’s bed. 

Aquaria pats the space next to her, sending Brianna a soft smile. “Hey, it’s cool. I don’t bite.” She wants to tag a _ ‘unless you’re into that’ _ to the end, but remembers that talk about restraint she had with Brooke. 

Brianna sits down, looking at the two DVDs that Aquaria has on her lap. 

“Have you ever seen Legally Blonde?” Aquaria holds up the DVD, and Brianna nods enthusiastically.

“Obviously, who do you think I am?”

Aquaria laughs, and Brianna beams. “Just checking to make sure.” The raven-haired girl reluctantly moves from her spot next to the blonde, getting up to put the movie in.

“I can’t believe you still have a DVD player.” Brianna says from her spot on the bed, and Aquaria rolls her eyes. 

“I have Netflix and Hulu and stuff, but I already had the DVD before then.” 

“Okay, Grandma.” Brianna smirks, and Aquaria hates how good it looks on her. 

When the opening credits finish and the movie starts, Brianna starts to feel comfortable. The taller girl can still see the blonde looking around her room, though, admiring various details like the small championship trophy she got for softball when she was eight, or the photos of Aquaria and her family and friends. 

Then, Aquaria remembers her text. 

_ I’d say we should watch a movie, but I don’t think we’d be paying attention. _

She has to make a move, right?

What the fuck, why is she so nervous? She’s never doubted herself before, and she refuses to become a cliche. 

Her first instinct is to pull the easiest trick in the book. A well-placed yawn would have her arm around Brianna, but she feels like she wants to make it special? 

“Hey,” Aquaria starts, getting Brianna’s attention. She inwardly rolls her eyes at what she’s about to do, but she knows Brianna is a dork and will love this. “If you had a parrot, would it be on this shoulder,” she says, putting her index finger on Brianna’s closest shoulder, “or  _ this _ shoulder.” Aquaria finishes, putting her arm around Brianna’s other shoulder. 

Brianna just stares, and for a minute, Aquaria thinks she’s majorly fucked up.

The blonde just  _ cackles _ . 

Aquaria is definitely embarrassed, but Brianna only shakes her head and leans into Aquaria, so the taller girl takes that as a win. 

Elle Woods has just gotten the internship when Aquaria has had enough. She will not let a girl change her. She’s smooth, she’s confident, and she gets what she wants. 

Brianna is finally engrossed in the movie, and Aquaria hates to take her out of it, but Aquaria also hates making herself wait. She turns her head slightly, and Brianna instantly picks up on the action, looking back at Aquaria.  Aquaria looks down, and then back up, and when she meets Brianna’s eyes again, the taller girl gives her a lazy, lopsided smile.

Brianna looks down at Aquaria’s mouth instinctively, and that’s when Aquaria knows it’s go time. She leans in, just slightly, and watches Brianna mimic the movement. That’s when Aquaria lets go of her inhibitions and captures Brianna’s lips, turning her body towards the shorter girl. 

It’s not a great position, but she  _ finally _ is kissing Brianna, and that’s all that really matters in the moment. 

Then, Brianna surprises her. The blonde pulls away, and Aquaria has some quip on the tip of her tongue, but Brianna beats her to it. “Not that I didn’t enjoy that, but this position  _ sucks _ .” Brianna laughs, and Aquaria finds it infectious. She laughs too, nodding. 

“Yeah, well, what’s there to do?” She doesn’t want to be the one to have to say it, so Aquaria is hoping that one eyebrow raise will dare Brianna to make a move. 

Brianna sends her a coy look. She bites her lip, before pushing herself up, and turning to hook a leg over Aquaria’s. When she gets into position, she’s now straddling the taller girl, and Aquaria is silently thanking some God, or whoever is listening. 

“Is this okay?” Brianna asks, and Aquaria nods and puts her hands on the blonde’s waist in response. 

Brianna lifts her hands to cup Aquaria’s face, before leaning back in and capturing her lips. 

_ Holy crap, I’m kissing Aquaria Needles! _ Brianna thinks to herself, but then she can’t be bothered to think because Aquaria bites her lip,  _ hard _ , and slips a tongue into the shorter girl’s mouth soon after that. 

It hits nine o’clock sooner than Brianna thought it would. The movie had been on the loading screen for about an hour at that point, but Brianna can’t be bothered to care, until her phone starts to ring. 

She groans, loudly, rolling off of Aquaria and over to the nightstand where her phone is. She picks it up, hearing her mom's voice crackle through the speaker. 

“Yeah, I’ll be home in like twenty minutes. Love you, too. Bye.”

She hangs up the phone, looking towards Aquaria. “That was my mom.”

“I figured. I dunno who else you’d be saying ‘I love you’ to.” 

Brianna rolls her eyes good-naturedly, leaning in to peck the taller girl on the lips. “Yeah, yeah.” The two smile at each other, until Brianna pulls away. “I promised my mom I’d leave, now. It’s getting late, I guess.”

Aquaria shrugs. “Time flies when you’re having fun.”

Brianna smiles. “I was having a lot of  _ fun _ .” 

“I’m glad.” 

Brianna knows that if she lets herself, she’ll keep prolonging the inevitable and will just make the conversation awkward. So she keeps smiling, sliding off the bed and putting her phone in her pocket. 

The two make their way downstairs, silently, and Brianna sort of likes it. She’s usually too talkative for her own good, but she can value the way Aquaria lets her know that she liked having Brianna here by the way their hands brush together when they walk down the steps. 

“Text me when you get home.” Aquaria basically whispers, and Brianna almost melts at the request. 

“I will.” She responds, and Aquaria leans in to press one more kiss against the blonde’s lips. 

When Brianna gets into the car, she lets out one high pitched sigh, and then squeals, putting her keys in the ignition. 

When Aquaria closes the door, after seeing Brianna drive away, she also lets out a sigh. This one, however, has much more to do with the questions running through her mind. Ultimately, she just decides that she’s screwed, and that she hates Brooke and her stupid ideas about what Aquaria may or may not feel.


End file.
